Machine for printing rugs



Nov. 6, 1928. 1,5'"1,'021-- J. B. CAMPBELL MACHINE FOR PRINTING RUGS ed June 11, 1926 I N V EN TOR.

A TTOR NE r.

Patented Nov. 6, 1928.

UNITED STATES! PATENT orrlcs.

JOHN B. CAMPBELL, or SALEM, NEw JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MEsN ASSIGNMENTS, TO cezarmon mns INCORPORATED, or CINCINNATI, 01110, A. CORPORATION OF OHIO.

MACHINE FOR PRINTING BUGS.

Application filed June 11,

My invention relates to machines for rinting rug border designs on a body floor covering material, such as asphalt saturated felt, oil cloth, linoleum and the like.

6 Theproblem involved in printing rug designs on a continuous body of floor covering materialrests in the factthat when using printing blocks, it is necessary to provide a timing in application of the designs, such 10 that the various blocks applying the colors and patterns for the body'of center of the rug design, must not be permitted to engage the felt base, where the border or end is printed and vice versa.

II To provide for such a printing, requires a step by step movement of the felt body,

and careful registry of all blocks which are to print the given colors. All of th1s takes time, and the rug printin is a slow process.

It is my object to provi e for printing rug patterns on a continuous bod of felt by means of a series of rollers, each 0 which Wlll print elements of an entire border design, making impressions at the centers and both ends of the rug patterns, and to carry the flooring along a level bed into which the tympan rollers are set, which provide a seat for the felt during the actual im rinting thereon.

It is my further ob ect tohold the felt by means of traveling belts with spikes or pins thereon that positively en age it, thus preventing any dislocation of the several imprints due to irre ular action of the base body during the printing.

In printing a piece of flooring in a continuous strip, it is not practical to apply the accepted method for rotary printin because this would call for a movement 0 the body to be printed through a circulararc traversing the printing drum, which presents a problem in mainta1ning registry that does not seem to be open for solution, and which would call for quite a cumbersome installation, due to the fact that the felt base saturated with asphalt, and coated with riming coats and the like, is not easy to ban e or bend around a drum.

I have illustrated in the drawings a typical machine for the purpose of carrying out my process, and will describe the rocess 1n connection therewith, closing this specrficatron with claims addressed to the invention 1nherent in said process.

1926. Serial No. 115,399,

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a mechanism constructed to use my process.

F gure 2 is a plan view thereof.

Figure 3 is a detail of the conveyor tape.

The printing is imparted to a piece of continuous floorin material indicated at 1,. which in the preferred form is a strip of asphalt saturated felt, on which has been deposited a ground coat or base coat of some suitable floor covering paint. D The press has a bed 1, over which the floormg body passes. Beneath each printing point are tympan rolls 3, 3, on which the flooring rests when engaged on the upper side by the prlnting plates.

A conveyor .is provided, formed preferably of bands of flexible metal 4, driven by means of drums 5, which have the form of sprockets, so as to engage.ribs formed on or attached to the metal band. Projecting upwardly from the metal band are the spikes or pins 6, and the drums arearranged to cause the bands to pass along the sides of the bed. The flooring base is secured to the s ikes along its edges and never is detached t erefrom until completely printed. --Tlr1is feed has been used in fiat block printing machines and will positively prevent the stretching or other distortion of the felt during the printing.

The printing devices are driven synchronously with the spike bands, so that the s ed of the felt and of the printing roll sur aces .is the same.

The printing is done by means of a plurality of drums 7, mounted in journals 8, and rotated by the drive of the machine. I have shown two'rolls, but it will be understood that more could be provided, in which case the adjustments would be made on all but the one roll, to get registry.

The rolls may be faced with wood and cut with desi s forming curved printing plates, secured f s t to the rolls, that is to sa the printing plates are made part of the ruins. Each plate is as lon as the full design to be imprinted, i. e. as t e rug design repeats as are to be rinte-d on the floorin base. In order to a just the registr of t e plate on the drum to the left in the drawings, one simple way is to chan e the osition of the drum itself to the position of t e drum which 105 is directly driven.

As a typical drive, I have shown a shaft 9 driven from a source of power. This shaft has worms 10, one for each printing drum. The worms mesh with worm wheels 11. The worm wheels carry on the same shaft, gears 12, that mesh with gears 13, loose on the shafts 8. Fast on each shaft 8, are worm wheels 14, and the drums themselves are fast on each shaft; On each gear 13 are bosses 15, which mount a worm 16. The worms 16 mesh with the worm wheels let, and thus the movement imparted to the gears 13, actuates the drum shafts and drums.

To obtain a setting of the printing surface on each drum with relation to the other,

a tool is inserted in a socketed collar 17 on.

the desired worm 16, so as to revolve its worm wheel 14, with relation to its gear 13. This changes the relation of the drum to the drive, and registers the design on the drum plates lengthwise. made when fastening the drums on the spin rlles thereof.

Thus to edect registry, the drive to the printing plate drums is coupled so as to bring the plate in the correct position by revolving the worm, which serves to couple the operating member with the drum. The worm drive, being one which does not shift during normal operation, i. e. being self locking due to the relative pitch of the spirals thereof, the adjustment can be quickly and permanently made.

It will be noted that the felt base never changes in its truly horizontal position, and this is of considerable importance, not only from the point of view of the accuracy of retaining it in registry from one imprint to another, but because it saves the paint from running.

Were it to be attempted to print a full rug repeat design with a single printing plate, around which a piece of flooring felt was caused to travel, the required thickness in the paint coating to make it suitable for flooring would result in the paint running, unless it were held horizontally, at least to an extentsuiilcient to blur the patterns for the several colors to be imprinted.

The crosswise adjustment is The use of a full sized rug repeat design printing plate on each drum, saves the necessity of holding out some of the cylinders at certain intervals of the printing. To hold out a rotary printing plate for certain cycles and permit it to be applied during others, presents a problem in registry which I have been unable to solve, and I know of no one who has done this successfully.

The use of full sized rug repeat printing plates, also permits of a ready registry of the whole rug design, by moving the cylinder which supports the plates either lengthwise of the bed or table, or in a rotary manner with relation to the common driving means.

The paint is applied to the curved plates at a point as near as possible to the printing line thereof. Thus, the paint troughs 20, and paint applying rollers 21, are located near the flat table or bed, and the paint may be applied to the plates with desired thickness and viscosity, without running the danger of a flowing of the paint so as to give an irregular or uneven printed surface.

Naturally the plates will not have to take up the entire drum, as the starting point in printing is the important factor, with the accuracy otherwise being dependent in a machine of the type I have described on the accuracy of the printing plate themselves. To avoid waste of material, the plates should be of the full size of the drum circumference.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A flooring printing machine comprising a flat bed, spiked bands moving on both sides of the bed to carry a piece of flooring to be printed through the machine, a plurality of printing cylinders, said cylinders being of a size to retain circular printing plates thereon cut to form the respective color imprints of a complete unit design of a piece of flooring, tympan rollers located below the color imprinting lines of the rollers, and means for applying flooring paint to the plates at a point adjacent the printing line, so as to avoid flow thereof, as and for the purpose described.

JOHN B. CAMPBELL. 

